


Shoes

by rudbeckia



Series: Random Worlds [5]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Asexual Character, Body Worship, M/M, OOC and IDC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-12-01 15:45:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11489550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Continues from the last fic in this series, about a month later.Ben goes bouldering with Armitage. It does not go as he expects, and Armitage behaves unexpectedly when hefinallydecides to invite him home.





	Shoes

Ben checked his email and google maps again. He was at the correct postcode, but instead of a fancy sports centre, he faced a dilapidated building in an unfashionable, once industrialised, now deserted part of the city centre. It looked like a warehouse only without the charm. The wide, uneven pavements were parked up with decade-old cars that had definitely had less than careful drivers, and a couple sported smashed passenger side windows where trusting owners had left small valuables in view. Double yellows lined the narrow road and Ben had to use a potholed pay-and-display further up the street. He removed everything moveable from his car and stashed it in the boot, just in case.

A small sign on the painted steel door was the only advertisement.  
_Takodana Top Rope Castle & Boulder Cavern. Please close the door after you._  
Ben pressed the single button under the sign and was admitted with a buzz and a click. The reception area was dim but natural brightness glowed further in. Ben tapped the bell on the desk and waited, ignored.  
“Oh! You came!”  
Ben turned to see someone smiling at him. It took a second to recognise Armitage. The grey uniform and training shoes were gone, replaced with tight capri leggings that fit snug on his hips and a pair of odd-shaped red fabric shoes that had black rubbery soles extending up the heels and curling around the toes. He smiled back, focusing on the man’s face and not on his very bare torso.  
“Well you invited me so yes, I came.”  
“Great!” Armitage leaned way over the reception counter and yelled, “HELLO!” Ben stared.  
A small, wrinkled figure with the biggest glasses Ben had ever seen shuffled from the back room. Hux pulled Ben forward by the arm.  
“I want to sign in my friend here. Can you get him some shoes?”

Waivers signed, insurance paid and shoes horribly tight on his feet, Ben watched Armitage’s back as he wove them a path through the top rope area where people climbed colourful routes up and slid down again, guided by their belay partners on the ground. Hux paused to watch a climber finish a route and cheer from the top. He turned to Ben.  
“You can rent a harness and try that later if you like. I’ll belay for you.”  
Ben snorted. “Seriously? I must weigh double what you weigh. If I fell you’d go rocketing up.”  
Armitage laughed. He pointed at a pair where a slender girl with long hair held in three loose loops behind her head leaned back with the rope threaded through her harness, her partner a stockily built black-haired man dangling easily ten metres above her, shaking and stretching his arms with only his toes on the wall to keep him from swaying. She called up, “You’ve had enough rest now, Dameron, get back on the wall!”

The bouldering section was cave-like, claustrophobic and dim compared with the airy space of the top rope section with its soaring height that ended in a transparent ceiling that let natural afternoon daylight flood in. The walls were painted in bright neons to compensate and recessed lights spotted here and there between the holds. Ben smiled. This was going to be easy. He had strength to spare.  
“This one first - the green holds. It’s a vee-nought. Want me to show you?”  
Ben shrugged. “It looks pretty obvious. How hard can it be?”  
Armitage grinned and completed the short climb in five moves before dropping the two metres or so lightly to the padded floor. Ben attempted to follow but peeled backwards off the wall on his first three attempts without moving upwards at all. Armitage grinned and Ben scowled.  
“Okay smartarse. What am I doing wrong?”  
Armitage demonstrated again, with commentary. “Hips as close to the wall as you can, keep your centre of mass above your toes and push with your legs rather than pulling with your arms or you’ll be knackered in no time.”  
“Huh.”  
Armitage climbed down again rather than dropping from the top hold just to show off. Ben positioned his hands and his right foot, pushed his hips forward at the wall and hauled his left foot into position. He clung tight for a few seconds then made a desperate grab for the next handhold. He almost made it, fingertips grazing the textured plastic as his toes slipped and he landed on his backside on the mat. Hux smirked and pointed at a route on the opposite wall where bright pink jug-shaped holds formed a left-right-hands-feet route.  
“Do you want to try one of the kids’ ungraded routes? There are a couple of ladders if you want to practise those.”  
Ben stood up and rubbed his hands on his sweats before putting one hand back on a green hold and pointing a finger at Armitage. “Fuck you. I will not be beaten by a few pieces of plastic screwed to a wooden board.”

This time, Armitage guided Ben with a hand on his lower back and another on the crest of his hip as a gentle reminder to push forward and shift his centre of mass over his foothold before moving. In awkward pushes and pulls, learning from the experience of a few more falls, Ben made it to the top and jumped down. He lay back on the mat and grinned at Armitage. “See? Told you it would be easy.”  
Armitage laughed, offered Ben a hand to pull him up and led him to a different panel. “This one next. Watch.”  
Ben sat with his jaw dropping as Armitage swarmed up the wall on the tiniest finger and toe-holds then continued, clinging upside down like a spider scuttling across the low ceiling of the cave area. He shook his head when Armitage dropped to the floor, raised his eyebrows and pointed at Ben then at the start of the route. “The force just doesn’t affect you, does it?”  
“What force?” asked Armitage with a frown.  
“Gravity!” retorted Ben. “You’re showing off now, or do you want to laugh at me some more?”  
“Bit of both, to be honest,” admitted Armitage with a smirk. “There’s something satisfying about seeing a big, burly bloke fall on his arse. Makes up for—”  
“What? Makes up for what?”  
“Nothing.” Armitage was all fake smiles again. “Want to try the vee-nought traverse? It’s fun.”

Ben realised something as he fell off the traverse for the umpteenth time with aching forearms, worn-off fingerprints and bruised knees: he was enjoying being instructed in an impossible, pointless task by a rude, irritating man immensely.

They climbed until Ben’s grip failed then sat in a quiet corner to stretch out cramping flexor and extensor muscles in their forearms.  
“I have no idea how I am going to drive home,” complained Ben. “I won’t be able to grip the steering wheel.”  
“You brought a car?” Ben nodded his answer. Armitage paused then offered, “I could drive your car for you, assuming it’s still there. I got a lift here so it’s no big deal. Want to get coffee first?”  
“Uh?” Ben tried to think of good reasons to refuse but came up blank. They moved to the small reception area that also housed a coffee machine and a few square, plastic tables. Armitage pulled on a soft sweater and got two cardboard cups of coffee while Ben wrestled his toe-constricting climbing shoes off and hobbled back over to the desk to return them and reclaim his trainers, which now felt like enormous, over-padded slippers. Ben watched Armitage sip the hot, murky liquid and wondered how they had ever got here from that first frustrating encounter in the gym, or the second where Ben decided he actually did hate Armitage until seeing him openly enjoying something as pathetically simple as the feeling of hot water on his pale skin. He wondered what Armitage really thought of him, if his opinion had shifted in the month since they had met.  
_He called me ‘my friend’ when we arrived but that’s probably just easier than saying ‘this guy I sort of know from work who’s a bit of a dick’._

“You’re staring again.” Armitage was smiling, cheeks a little pink or that could have been due to reflected light from the garish red table.  
“Sorry.” Ben looked away but there really wasn’t anything else worth looking at.  
“I don’t mind. I stare at you when you’re in the gym.”  
“Yeah but that’s your job.” Ben looked back up at Armitage.  
“No,” Armitage definitely blushed that time. “I usually just take care of the paperwork to keep the managing director happy. I only intervene when—“  
Armitage stopped. He sipped more coffee. Ben shook his head and glared. “You did it again.”  
“What?”  
“Started saying something interesting then stopped. You only intervene when _what?”_  
Armitage sighed and flicked a glance to Ben’s eyes and back to his coffee.  
“I only intervene when I see someone I want. To work with. You were about to walk out, that first day when Phasma told you you had to be supervised. I wanted you to be mine. My client.”  
Ben laughed, feeling a tiny stab of disappointment at Armitage’s quick corrections. “You do that often?” Armitage grinned and returned Ben’s gaze.  
“Only once so far.”  
This time it was Ben’s face that warmed.

After laughing at how far Armitage had to adjust the driving seat, conversation on the way back to Ben’s place was limited to directions. Ben fretted a little. Should he invite Armitage in and call him a taxi? Ask him to stay for dinner? Say goodbye on the doorstep and point out the bus stop? Armitage’s driving style was defensive and Ben bit back comments of _You can go now_ and _Why can’t you just overtake that bus!_ Too soon they pulled into Ben’s space. Armitage cut the engine and adjusted the driver’s seat back a few notches. They both got out and Armitage handed Ben’s keys back.  
“Would you like to come in and—“  
“Yes please.”  
“You don’t know what I was about to say!” Ben smirked. Armitage smirked back.  
“Oh? I think I could take a good guess.”

Four minutes later Ben stood naked in his bedroom with Armitage, also nude, prodding the swell of his abs with both forefingers and counting up _two, four, six… eight!_ Ben laughed.  
“Is this where you tell me I’m exactly what your agency needs as long as I pose for a couple of tasteful photographs?”  
Armitage shuddered. “I had thought of asking you to join us at _First Order,_ maybe pose for an advert and get free membership in return in lieu of actual money. But you can say no and that’s fine. I’d have to clear it with Director Snoke first anyway. But,” and here Armitage leaned in close to murmur in Ben’s ear, _”I wouldn’t mind taking that nice, tasteful ‘after’ picture and maybe one or two more for personal study.”_  
Ben burst out laughing. “Not a chance. No dick pics ever.”  
“Actually I didn’t mean that,” Armitage continued to caress Ben’s muscles, moving up to his bulging pectorals and over his deltoids. “I’m more interested in how you look, your whole body, than your penis.”  
“So… you want… what, exactly?”

Ben’s puzzled face almost made Armitage smile, but his mouth formed a serious line as he contemplated the likely outcome of what he planned to say. He’d be laughed at. Thrown out. Told he was weird, a perv.  
“Armitage?”  
“Uh?”  
“You went spacey for a second. Are you okay?”  
“Yes. Um. Look.”  
“Oh shit, you changed your mind. That’s okay. Do I stink from climbing?”  
“What? No, yes, doesn’t matter.” Armitage rubbed a hand over his face and looked at Ben from behind his fingers. “Just don’t laugh at me, okay?”  
Ben pouted. “What if you say something funny?”  
“Please don’t be a dick.” Armitage’s voice sounded flat and Ben regretted his lack of judgment of Armitage’s mood. He sighed and stroked Armitage’s glorious hair lightly.  
“Okay. This is my Serious Face. No laughing.”  
Armitage bit his lip and thumbed at the ridges of Ben’s serratus muscles, studying the way Ben’s skin responded to pressure. He did not look up. “I want to look at you and touch you but I don’t want you touching me, at least, not in the same way.”  
“Huh?” Ben frowned. “What do you mean?”  
Armitage felt tentative relief at the lack of explosive overreaction from Ben. “I find you attractive. Uh, _very_ attractive. I want to touch you, feel you _everywhere_ but there are some places on me that are off-limits.”  
“Oh! So you want to touch my cock but I can’t touch yours?” Ben was still frowning but a furtive glance showed that his face held no anger or confusion, only a desire for clarification.  
“Something like that.” Hope flared in Armitage’s chest but he still didn’t dare meet Ben’s eyes.  
“Okay.” Ben smiled at last. “Can I kiss you now?”


End file.
